December 25
7:30 am
"Mimi. Mimi", he cried. He tried to extend his arms out as if to grab her, but to no avail, they remained paralyzed at his sides. Her motionless body continued to float upward, towards the blinding white light, farther and farther out of his reach. "No, no, baby. Come back, come back baby. I love, I love y…"
"Roger, Roger Davis….", a woman's voice called somewhere in this distance. Roger was instantly pulled from his dream, back into reality, awaking to find himself laying across several itchy blue chairs, in a strange white room.
After a few moments of confusion everything came back to him; last night Maureen and Joanne had found Mimi on the streets and she had nearly died on his kitchen table. He was now in the waiting room of the hospital where along, he and his friends had taken her despite her protests.
Upon their arrival at the hospital's emergency room, several nurses rushed Mimi away on a stretcher, and that was the last time he'd seen her. Oh, god, was Mimi ok? How long had he been asleep for?
"Roger, is there a Roger Davis here?", the voice called again. This time Roger turned to see a plump, dark nurse with long cornrows standing in the middle of the waiting room. She held a clipboard in her hands. "Roger Davis…" the nurse began once more. "Th…that's me", he stuttered, getting up from his chair. He ran over to the nurse, nearly tripping over Collins, who had been laying on the floor right next to him. Mark, Maureen, and Joanne were also asleep in chairs all around him, but he was too concerned about Mimi to even notice their presence.
"You're here with Ms. Marquez?", the nurse asked him when he reached her. He couldn't catch his breath to answer her, so he simply nodded his head. The nurse checked her clipboard. "How, how is she?", Roger asked once he'd finally caught his breath. "She's really lucky you found her when you did", began the nurse. Roger winced as she said this. "He hadn't been the one to save her. In fact, he was the reason she was so sick in the first place. She needed him and he wasn't there for her," he thought to himself.
"She couldn't have survived another night on the street, especially one as cold as last night". These words caused Roger to wince again as he realized how close he'd come to losing her, for good. "She's in pretty bad shape", continued the nurse, "but responding well to the meds…" "Can I see her now?" asked Roger, cutting the nurse off.